A SPECIAL mobile unit which promotes the dangers of drugs to children has been dedicated to a Blackburn schoolboy who died of an overdose of the heroin substitute methadone.

Gareth Noone, aged16, died almost two years ago and since his death his mother has backed the Life Education Trust's campaign to send the mobile teaching units into Lancashire schools.

At the unveiling of the unit in Preston, Niamh Astles-Noone, a Lancashire Constabulary solicitor who lives in Langho, spoke of her difficulty in coming to terms with the shock of losing her son.

She said: "For our family, Gareth's death was sudden and shocking. For myself I still have difficulty believing he is dead.

"Gareth will live on through this practical memorial which is designed to arm young people against the dangers of substance abuse and to prevent them, I hope, from suffering the same fate as him."

She added: "I would like to thank the Life Education Trust for giving our family the consolation of this memorial, which will help to ease the dull ache in our hearts, but which more importantly may save the lives of young people.

"I urge Life Education to continue to arm young people with information in this positive and constructive way so that they and their families do not suffer the devastating destruction of substance abuse."

Niamh Astles-Noone has also made a video entitled 'If Only He'd Known', in which she talks about Gareth's life and the effect of his death on her family.

Life Education Centres, part of a worldwide and self-funding drugs prevention organisation, uses a positive and fun approach. The mobile classrooms are used at primary schools to offer preventive drug abuse programmes.

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